Imagine what it would be like to only have a dollar or less to live on every day. Did you know that 25,000 lives are lost every single day from hunger and 11 million children; most younger than 5 years old, will die because of hunger each year? This is happening to many nations in the around the world.Sadly, more than 40% of food produced is never eaten and 38 billion dollars worth of food is thrown away every year. Even in our back yard, the United States, 40-50% of the food that is harvested is never eaten. Instead, it just sits there and decomposes. More than one third of the world’s grain that has been harvested is used to feed livestock. What does that mean? While corn is a staple food in many Latin American and Sub-Saharan countries, it is being fed to cattle. “Worldwide, it is used largely as feed. Wheat is more evenly divided between food and feed; it is a staple food in many regions such as the West, China and India. The total cattle population for the world is approximately 1.3 billion occupying some 24% of the land of the planet. 70-80% of grain produced in the United States is fed to livestock. Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed. A gallon of gasoline is required to produce a pound of grain-fed beef" says expert Anup Shah, from Beef. Cattle is used for human consumption but corn is a staple. Our natural resources continue to shrink leaving less land and water for farming. How will we ever able to clean up our act so that less people will die of hunger?
Imagine what it would be like to only have a dollar or less to live on every day. Did you know that 25,000 lives are lost every single day from hunger and 11 million children; most younger than 5 years old, will die because of hunger each year? This is happening to many nations in the around the world.Sadly, more than 40% of food produced is never eaten and 38 billion dollars worth of food is thrown away every year. Even in our back yard, the United States, 40-50% of the food that is harvested is never eaten. Instead, it just sits there and decomposes. More than one third of the world’s grain that has been harvested is used to feed livestock. What does that mean? While corn is a staple food in many Latin American and Sub-Saharan countries, it is being fed to cattle. “Worldwide, it is used largely as feed. Wheat is more evenly divided between food and feed; it is a staple food in many regions such as the West, China and India. The total cattle population for the world is approximately 1.3 billion occupying some 24% of the land of the planet. 70-80% of grain produced in the United States is fed to livestock. Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed. A gallon of gasoline is required to produce a pound of grain-fed beef" says expert Anup Shah, from Beef. Cattle is used for human consumption but corn is a staple. Our natural resources continue to shrink leaving less land and water for farming. How will we ever able to clean up our act so that less people will die of hunger?
http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/landing/2009-endhunger.php?origin=gwhunger20102
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
http://www.wfp.org/countries/angola